New Blog Address: Coloring Life Beautiful

Friends, I’m moving to two new blog addresses!

It’s time for me to step fully into the work God has done in my life over the last two years since starting here at Sunny Side Up.

The funny thing is…I never wanted to blog. My husband told me I should, so I thought I’d give it a try…perhaps hoping to show him it really wasn’t for me!

But it was.

For me.

My healing has come through the writing…the journaling, the praying, the laughing and the crying. Eventually it led me to discover this:

Jesus colors my life beautiful.

Even when, and especially when, life seems anything but beautiful.

Coloring Life Beautiful, is the new place where I’ll play and create with words in an attempt to illustrate for you the beauty of my life with Jesus.

Beauty Minute is where I share daily inspirational beauty moments I’ve collected including stories, photos, videos, artwork, poems, and of course–laughter.

Life isn’t always beautiful, but when I’ve opened the book of my heart to my best friend and savior, He’s rewritten my black-inked days in red.

He’s taken my pain, shame, guilt, and sorrow and re-colored them through the redemption of His shed blood for me.

It’s a continually written story, always being re-colored, day by day. But thankfully, His mercies are new every morning, and He stays faithful to the promise of each day’s sunrise.

There’s so much to share about coloring life beautiful…about healing…and about becoming in the overcoming.

Beauty is God’s handwriting. The handwriting of Love in your story and mine.

Join me over at Coloring Life Beautiful and Beauty Minute and let’s read some of it together, shall we?

You’ll do best by filling your minds and meditating on things true, noble, reputable, authentic, compelling, gracious—the best, not the worst; the beautiful, not the ugly; things to praise, not things to curse.

Philippians 4:8 MSG

Click here to visit Coloring Life Beautiful

Click here to visit Beauty Minute

© Linda Crawford 2013

Re-written in Red Ink: Jesus is the Game Changer

Sharing a devotion at Internet Cafe co-written with my daughter:

Much of my life over the last three years has been written in black ink…a dark script of pain, sorrow, loss and loneliness.

And yet, every day and every word of darkness God has edited, rewritten, crossed out, and written over in red ink.

Because…

Red-inked words of life rewritten over the black-inked script of our lives.

A truth so beautifully captured in a story my daughter wrote when she was just sixteen:

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Checkers

Imagine an intense checkers game.

You’re the red pieces…and your opponent smiles menacingly as he sets up his black pieces. You start out feeling very confident, thinking that this game will be a breeze. But as the game goes on, red pieces start disappearing and black kings seem to be everywhere you try to go. Eventually the board is totally void of red pieces…except for one.

One tiny, pathetic little piece is cornered by all the black kings. Sweat pours down your face and you think that there is no way you could ever beat your opponent. On the other hand, he’s sitting across from you with glinting eyes and a devilish smile, showing confidence that makes you feel like he could jump up and smash you into the ground.

But then a shadow falls across the board. You both look up, and see a man standing there with a smile on his face. A patch on his shirt says “All-Time Checkers Champion, 33AD.” You look over at your opponent, only to see that his face has gone white. The man gently places his hand on your shoulder and says, “Well, how’s the game going?”  

“Not so well…” You reply. “I’m going to lose.”

The man quickly scans over the board and then looks back at you. “Doesn’t look too bad to me. Anyway, this isn’t your game…”

To read the rest of the devotion at Internet Cafe click here.

©Linda Crawford 2012, all rights reserved

Adventures in Writing: Memories of Fall

I’m heading out on a new writing adventure. I want to try to take a picture in words…and capture a fleeting memory, moment, or imagination…in 300 words or less.

<click> here’s my first pic:

The acrid smoke burns my nostrils.

I sniff in again. The prickly sensation travels down the back of my throat, and I am satisfied.

I have smelled Fall.

Our rakes lay abandoned in a haphazard array in the bare grass as we gather around the piles of growing flame. Horse chestnuts, shed with the crisp browned leaves, explode from their hidden shells inside the fire…and we cheer.

The joy tingles us to our toes and we forget our aching shoulders. The chorus of mournful tunes that echoed in the cool clear air just moments before have fallen like the leaves, and now fertilize the flames and the fun.

This burning ritual has no gender bias—I am an equal here with my brothers, covered in crumbled leaf dust, infiltrated with smoke, as we tend the fires with imagined military precision.

We don’t know the smoke is making our eyes sting and our lungs choke until there are only ashes of leaves left.

The rakes are forgotten for the leaves of tomorrow to fall upon them. The boys tease each other and run away down the lane.

No one sees my smile.

I have smelled Fall, and the joy of it I will remember forever.

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After looking at the way things are on this earth, here’s what I’ve decided is the best way to live: Take care of yourself, have a good time, and make the most of whatever job you have for as long as God gives you life. And that’s about it. That’s the human lot. Yes, we should make the most of what God gives, both the bounty and the capacity to enjoy it, accepting what’s given and delighting in the work. It’s God’s gift! God deals out joy in the present, the now.  Ecclesiastes 5:18-20 MSG

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Three grand essentials to happiness in this life are something to do, something to love, and something to hope for. - Joseph Addison

Praying for you to find delight in the nows of your today and your yesterdays. May you live, love, and hope with joy!

©Linda Crawford 2012, all rights reserved

Pondering the number 3

It’s been three months since I’ve written a blog post.

A lot can happen in three months…

I have three months of wonderful memories shared with family and friends.

I’m three months older (which, at my age, is not something I celebrate)…

Wait…I’m older, but am I also three months wiser?

Oh yes, I believe I am.

I’m wiser and I’m transformed. Older, but renewed.

All because of three miraculous days in June, and the three months of healing that have followed.

So I ponder the number 3 today…

It was three days before Jesus rose from the dead.

Three is a number of RESURRECTION.

Thank you Jesus for the resurrection life you poured into me during those three days and have continued to pour out these last three months.

Three is the number of DIVINE PERFECTION—Father, Son, and Holy Spirit–the fullness of God.

You don’t need a telescope, a microscope, or a horoscope to realize the fullness of Christ, and the emptiness of the universe without him. When you come to him, that fullness comes together for you, too. His power extends over everything. Colossians 2:9-10 MSG

Thank you God, for calling me to empty myself of the things that filled my life that were not of you—pain, fear and sins of unbelief–and filling me with the fullness of your life.

3, you have been good to me.

Soon I’ll write a testimony of your goodness, your mercy, and your healing power Lord. But for today, I’ll ponder your Divine perfection and the power of your resurrection life at work in me…

The number three “signifies and represents the Holy Spirit as taking the things of Christ and making them real and solid in our experience.” –biblestudy.org

You are making them real to me.

Thank you Lord, for 

©Linda Crawford 2012, all rights reserved

An Epic Story Sandwich

Happy 21st Birthday to my daughter Sarah! May you have more-than-enough, overflowing joy today!

And a yummy sandwich!

Why is everyone hungry for more? “More, more,” they say. ”More, more.”  I have God’s more-than-enough, more joy in one ordinary day than they get in all their shopping sprees. Psalm 4:6-7 (MSG)

Hunger.

It motivates.

That gnawing, I-need-something-to-eat-right-now feeling forces us to seek the nourishment we need to stay healthy. And for 20-something girls with an appetite, that nourishment is often found (with coupons) at the local sub shop…

Last week my daughter Sarah headed out to feed her hunger and brought home more than a sandwich to eat…she brought me another “Faith Lesson My Daughter Taught Me.”

Wrapped in paper and emblazoned with the title “An Epic Story Sandwich,” it goes like this:

We were standing in line to order in front of the glass case with all the ingredients neatly organized in their metal containers. My friend Kassi and I were joking around and I mentioned how funny it would be if you ordered your sandwich in story form. Kassi dared me to do it. So I turned to the guy behind the counter and asked him if I could order my sandwich in a story.

His stoic, greet-the-customer smile transformed into a playful grin. He set up the bread and then positioned himself to act out the story. Josh the sandwich guy was ready to play along…

Click HERE to read the rest of the story at Internet Cafe Devotions!

Sending joy your way today,

© Linda Crawford 2012, all rights reserved.